[ENG]Text(e)~Fil(e)s is a monumental 252-m-long floor ribbon, on which thousands of text lines (literature, poetry, philosophy…) in relation to the Palais Royal proliferate, at different scales. The Palais-Royal, with its famous arcades, is a historical place full of signs and references. For two centuries, it was the most fashionable and visited place in France and even Europe – the true core of Parisian political and social intrigues. Its popular cafés were patronized by philosophers, writers, politicians, revolutionaries as well as gamblers, whores, performing freaks and criminals of all kinds.…
At a more abstract level, Text(e)~Fil(e)s relates to the freedom of thought and that of manners, two features characteristic of the Palais-Royal. The temporary installation invites visitors to a unique “sensational stroll” across the tens of thousands of texts that compose the piece. These texts are borrowed from various authors who have written on the Palais-Royal, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Beckford, Diderot, Dickens, Balzac, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Nerval, Céline, Aragon, Lautreamont, Cocteau, Colette or Breton, but also from unknown Parisians or occasional travelers who were inspired by the genius of the place.
Pascal Dombis uses computers and algorithms to produce excessive repetitions of simple processes resulting in unpredictable, unstable and dynamic visual forms. The proliferation and the excess of rules are seminal in his work. Using algorithmic calculations, the artist multiplied –at different scales – the various collected texts to an excess in order to reach a visual experience culminating in a feeling of immersion. Indeed one will not help noticing that the endless proliferation of lines reveals an experience of vertigo and infinitude. The visitor can either walk on the piece while reading a single text as s/he strolls all along the arcade, or s/he can switch from one text to another, experiencing a non linear reading full of subjective questionings or surprising revelations.